Some of the blue people thought the doctor was slightly addled for suggesting that a blue dye could turn them pink. When Benjy was born with purple skin, his relatives told the perplexed doctors about his great grandmother Luna Fugate. Said to have originated in Hampshire County, West Virginia. If the condition were inherited as a recessive trait, it would appear most often in an inbred line. Sometimes they married first cousins. I just knew that patient was going to die right there in the health department, but she wasnt atall alarmed. Oh, and they had blue skin. The family was first discovered in 1958 when one of the blue men, Luke Combs, who was a descendant of another branch of the Fugate family, took his white wife to the University of Kentucky Hospital and doctors paid more attention to him than his wife. Benjy was a pretty big item in the hospital, his mother says with a grin. What he got from Martin Fugate was dark blue skin. Stumped, the doctor turned to the medical literature for a clue. The railroad didnt come through eastern Kentucky until the coal mines were developed around 1912, and it took another 30 or 40 years to lay down roads along the local creeks. In the 1950s more than a fifth of the working population worked in the coal . And shop at Walmart. They were bluern hell, Cawein says. What Happened to the Blue People? For the Fugates, family members expressed the gene to varying degrees. In fact, change is seen as a negative to many West Virginians and disruptive to their way of life. Poisoned water shut down state capital and exposed endemic carelessness in oversight. .recentcomments a{display:inline !important;padding:0 !important;margin:0 !important;}function setREVStartSize(e){ The trait is recessive and when homozygous gives affected individuals, a distinctly blue color to their skin and chronic weakness. His car gave out on the dirt road to Zachs house, and the doctor had to borrow a Jeep from a filling station. "The True Story of the Blue People of Kentucky" Six generations after a French orphan named Martin Fugate settled on the banks of eastern Kentuckys Troublesome Creek with his redheaded American bride, his great-great-great great grandson was born in a modern hospital not far from where the creek still runs. url('//www.incandina.pe/wp-content/uploads/fonts/41/MontserratExtraLight/montserrat-extralight-webfont.woff') format('woff'), In the isolated hollows of rural Kentucky, they were known as the blue Fugates and the blue Combses. Larry Gibson, environmental activist; founder of Keeper of the Mountains Foundation. Trudging up and down the hollows, fending off the two mean dogs that everyone had in their front yard, the doctor and the nurse would spot someone at the top of a hill who looked blue and take off in wild pursuit. New Martinsville is located in the northwestern part of the state, right on the Ohio state line. By John Amato March 1, 2023. Doctors were so astonished by the color of Benjy Stacys skin that they raced him by ambulance from the maternity ward in the hospital near Hazard to a medical clinic in Lexington. The West Virginia motto is Montani semper liberi, and the state is one of the most mountainous in the country; sometimes it is called the "little Switzerland" of America, and once I heard an irreverent local citizen call it the "Afghanistan of the United States. Dr. Madison Cawein III began treatment with many tests. Oxygen, or a lack of oxygen, is what turns the blood from red to blue in people with methemoglobinemia. After ruling out heart and lung diseases, the doctor suspected methemoglobinemia, a rare hereditary blood disorder that results from excess levels of methemoglobin in the blood. Yes, West Virginia is among the poorest if not the poorest state in the union as well as one of the most uneducated and least economically developed. Regardless, this place might be the whitest, redneckest of them all. Population: 6,306Walmart rank: 2ndMobile home parks: 5th in the stateBars per person: 5th in West Virginia. So I brought back the new blood and set up my enzyme assay, Cawein continued. What neither she nor Martin could have known is that they both carried the recessive gene for a rare hereditary blood disorder called methemoglobinemia. Benjy lost his blue tint within a few weeks, and now he is about as normal looking a seven-year-old boy as you could hope to find. Not myth or legend; The Blue People of Kentucky were an isolated enclave of Appalachian people who lived with an embarrassing skin discoloration until a young hematologist took notice and found a solution. Benjy Stacy is one of the last of the blue Fugates. After analyzing all cities with a decent amount of people in them, we came up with this list as The Most Redneck Cities in West Virginia: Many of these are types of places where old redneck ladies drive their motorized wheelchairs down the middle of town, towing their grandkids in a wagon. He recounted how, after hearing the story for the first time, he and his roommates would make a show of continuously checking to see if their other friends lips or skin ever looked blue. Martin and Elizabeth Fugates blue children multiplied in this natural isolation tank. They were really embarrassed about being blue, he said. When you click through real estate links on our site, we earn an affiliate commission. The solution, oddly enough, was a commonly used dye called methylene blue. Have you ever heard of the blue Fugates of Troublesome Creek? she asked the doctors. Dating back to the early 1800s, an isolated family in eastern Kentucky who can trace their roots back to a French orphan started producing children who were blue. The Blue Ridge was reached in 1670, and in 1671 another expedition encountered the first westward-flowing stream, the New River, in southwestern Virginia. 10. In the isolated hollows of rural Kentucky, they were known as the blue Fugates and the blue Combses. Wheeling's city flag checks all the boxes for an [] Fear that more inflation will cost jobs. When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, the portion now known as West Virginia broke off to form its own state. So, hold our beers and watch this. 1: Mothman The granddaddy of all West Virginia monsters, Mothman has gained worldwide notoriety. Patrick was all hunched down in the hall. 3 of 10 isnt good enough; think of how high you wouldve finished on this list had more of you ditched class to head to the hills on Friday mornings like a lot of your friends. Jaculatorias A San Antonio De Padua, In his research, he found a 1960 article by E. M. Scott that was reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. by Brian Farrell and Steven Cohen | Feb. 27, 2023 Story at a glance Residents of western Maryland and eastern West Virginia on Friday morning found their cars and other things outside coated in. 39, 1960) that the answer began to emerge. Lappat, Hereditary Methemoglobinemia in Hemoglobin, Its Precursors and Metabolites, ed. This condition does, in fact, cause blue-tinted. Even though Lynchburg is about 100 miles from the West Virginia border, Falwell said he would vote for the city to leave Virginia for the purpose of "escaping the barbaric, totalitarian and . After concluding that there was no evidence of heart disease, I said Aha! I started asking them questions: Do you have any relatives who are blue? then I sat down and we began to chart the family., Cawein remembers the pain that showed on the Ritchie brothers and sisters faces. But his first love, which he developed as an Army medical technician in World War II, was hematology. They eventually came to the attention of the hematologist Madison Cawein III, who with the assistance of the nurse Ruth Pendergrass made a detailed study of their condition and ancestry. It involves numerous techniques and procedures that can improve the appearance of one's teeth, making them more brilliant, white, and beautiful. Jaculatorias A San Antonio De Padua, Different spellings of the surname sometimes include "Fugett" and "Fugitt". Laurel Wheeler and family, Buena Vista, Rockbridge County, Virginia. DynamicFrameworks - Elite ThemeForest Author. Fortunately, Cawein was able to find an antidote for the blood disorder - methylene blue which acted as an electron donor. One of em I remember seeing him when I was just a boy Blue Anze, they called him. Google Maps. The "bluest" of the blue Fugates, Luna Stacy, had 13 children and lived to age 84. The Fugate family of Kentucky once lived in the isolated community of Troublesome Creek. It like to scared me to death! When there, you will find Berkeley Springs State Park, a park that is built around the city's spa and mineral water culture. Steelworkers Damion Elkins, 50, right, and Edward Clonch, 43, left, in Huntington West Virginia. The gene is still around today but has now become statistically insignificant and there are no serious medical problems associated with it. Population: 5,258Walmart rank: 1stChew factor: 1stAmmo per capita: 9th. Within a few minutes. As it was, the Fugates stayed in the same area well into the 20th century. A Brief Appalachian History. Eventually, Cawein gained their trust and began taking blood samples. During the same time period, missionaries reported pervasive ignorance and poverty, with large families living together in ramshackle cabins. The last known "blue" Fugate descendant was born in 1975. As the story goes, Martin Fugate, a French orphan, settled on the banks of eastern Kentucky's Troublesome Creek around 1820 to claim a land grant. This is redneck wonderland. blue people of west virginia December 17, 2021 sister act cast member dies comments The name refers to a specific set of families. One came from a blue Flugate whod joined the Army and been sent to Panama, where his son was born bright blue. "The beginning of this story is so wild because Martin moved to Kentucky from Europe and married a complete stranger, a nonrelative who just happened to have the same mutation," says Lewis. Hereditary diaphorase deficiency and methemoglobinemia. That iron atom binds with oxygen, which is how red blood cells circulate oxygen throughout the body. remembered Pendergrass. Only adopted cousins are allowed to marry, while in Vermont, Virginia, and many other states, first cousins can tie the knot. West Virginia: County: Tyler: Elevation. Generations later, a descendant of Martin Fugate, Benjy Stacy, would be born "blue". A reference to "the Huntsville subgroup" is made in the American version of television sitcom Shameless when Kevin Ball (played by Steve Howey) discovers that he may have ancestors from that group.[10]. RoadSnacks is reader-supported. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 8 November 2021. The bluest Fugates I ever saw was Luna and her kin, says Carrie Lee Kilburn, a nurse who works at the rural medical center called Homeplace Clinic. Luna Fugate and John Stacy The entry was on the blue men, not of West Virginia, but of the Mountain State's neighbor, Kentucky, and it focused primarily on an article published in Science way back in 1982 - you can find that article here, but I want to quote a couple points for you. Poverty, with large families living together in ramshackle cabins in Huntington West Virginia, where his son born! 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